Kill Bill

When have you married well? When she opts for the stylized, hyper-violent controversial film over the well-regarded drama. So we both enjoyed Kill Bill a great deal, though K. didn't care for the more realistic scenes of violence. The film works a little more if you've seen some of the old Shaw Brothers martial-arts/revenge pics, and some of the crazy stuff Takashi Miike is churning out in Japan. It may be a disappointment to casual Tarantino fans who were drawn to Pulp Fiction by the dialogue. Kill Bill is written like subtitles or a dub-track in an old chopsocky. Too wordy, or stilted, or erudite, or something, to believably come from someone's mouth: "Those of you lucky enough to have your lives take them with you! However, leave the limbs you've lost. They belong to me now." Not a movie that will see you bombarded with quotes for months (probably a Good Thing). Yet somehow it all works, and very well. I'm looking forward to Part 2.



I must say that some well-known bloggers here and here are quite off-base about this movie that they haven't seen. Lileks at least admits he hasn't seen it and gives his reasons why; I deduce that Easterbrook hasn't seen it through his botching of plot points. Also, both are quick to dismiss Tarantino's movies as degrading crap -- but are either ignoring Jackie Brown and the rather tender love story at its heart, or saw a different film than I. I suppose it's been a while since Dr. Wertham was last exhumed.